Previous Patient Survey Results

Friends and Family Test Results

Following on from the Patient Survey 2014/2015, as the Friends and Family Test Results are collected monthly it was decided to produced a quarterly summary chart. For the appropriate quarters, these can be downloaded as follows:-

Patient Survey 2014/15

Introduction

Simmondley Medical Practice has seen a few changes since the last Patient Survey carried out in 2013 / 2014. Most significantly there has been a change in the doctors who provide the valuable service to its patients. However, this should now lead to a more settled period and the consistent provision of consultation by doctors who will become, and are now becoming known to patients.

In coordination with the Practice Management team, the Patient Participation Group has also again been extremely active in helping to provide feedback to the practice for the services that it provides; in assisting in the establishment of a new “Over 75’s Champion” role; in the help with reviewing an annual survey and in assistance with the organization of a Christmas Raffle, the latter, in such times of austerity, doing really well and raising the sum of £240 which has been donated to the Derbyshire Air Ambulance Service.

The main aim of this report though is to concentrate on the results from the annual patient survey and provide further feedback to the practice management team so that;

Existing levels of service excellence can and should be maintained.

Areas of concern can be noted and actions planned to resolve these.

Recommendations for possible areas of improvement can be presented.

The basis of this year’s annual survey has been in the form of the recent Friends and Family Test; the results being taken from the questions asked and comments recorded on forms filled in by patients whilst visiting the practice; and / or by filling in the same form on-line via the new-look Practice web site at http://www.simmondleymedicalpractice.co.uk

Friends and Family Test:

The Friends and Family Test has been an anonymously gathered response to the following question;

How likely are you to recommend our GP practice to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?

The responses being a choice of;

Extremely likely

Likely

Neither likely nor unlikely

Extremely unlikely

Don’t know

Along with this was the possibility to give a main reason for the response as well as providing extra comments.

The results are continuously collected, but the basis has been made from those gathered during quarter 1 (November and December 2014, and January 2015). These totalled 225 in number and the overall results, in the form of a chart, speak for themselves;

Ongoing results will be published in the form of a quarterly chart, as above.

All patients coming into the surgery in November and December were given a survey form and asked to complete it if they wished. This covered a broad spectrum of our patients. Nurses and our over 75s champion are also asked to take these to patients, during home visits, so that this involves our older and/or frail or disabled patients too.

Because of the anonymity of the survey, the age and sex of participating patients is unknown. But from the 255 results reviewed, 171 of those were from patients who would be Extremely Likely to recommend friends and family to Simmondley Medical Practice, a further 75 would be likely; only 4 would be neither likely nor unlikely; 4 would be unlikely and 1 did not know. There were no patients surveyed who would be Extremely Unlikely to recommend the practice. This makes for a very strong testament that overall patients are happy with the services and treatments provided by the practice.

Existing levels of service excellence can and should be maintained

Some of the main reasons why patients are extremely happy with these services and treatments provided by Simmondley Medical Practice are the outstandingly helpful, kind and efficient ways that members of the practice team in the front line handle them. This is in terms of both the front desk and over the telephone. Following close on with this, the doctors and nursing staff are also reported to be professional and proficient in provision of both first line care and in follow-up treatments. They have been commented as always be willing to listen and provide good advice and guidance.

Working as a team, this reflects in another main reason for patient’s happiness and that is the ability to always get an appointment, most often when required and always within 1 to 2 days of the request. In many cases this has been reported as same day.

Although the survey results were collected anonymously, the patients participating were asked if they would mind having their comments published. These are amongst some of those received and agreed;

“Timely appointments and comprehensive clinics. The recent extension of hours (early mornings and weekends) shows the practice's interest in providing a good service to patients.”

“I can always get an appointment quickly. Prescriptions some online and go straight to chemist electronically.”

“We have received excellent support, advice and treatment over our 30 years as patients at this practice. Appointments are always available and visitors to our area have always been supported if necessary.”

“The surgery has current initiatives and maintains its professional balance. The doctors are pleasant and listen to patient’s comments and refer to other specialties as appropriate. ”

“I am always treated so professionally, yet in such a friendly manner! I always come away from a visit to this practice believing that the very best people has been done for me - and I've been a patient here for 26 years!”

“The staff at Simmondley Medical Practice have always been helpful and gone the extra mile to help in any way they can. They give a good service - excellent.”

Areas of concern can be noted and actions planned to resolve these.

From the answers to the question it can be demonstrated that 67% of patients who participated are extremely likely to recommend Simmondley Medical Practice to friends and family, and 29% are likely to do so. This gives a staggering total of 96% of patients who are therefore happy with the service, facilities and treatments provided.

However many comments provided a common theme and it is these that let us suggest areas to be noted and possible actions that can be considered. These are;

The staff, both clinical and administrative are extremely friendly, helpful, efficient, knowledgeable and professional in ensuring that the patient gets to visit a doctor as soon as is possible. In some cases, from experiences recorded on the forms, this has been the case for many years. Reviewing the survey comments, these include such praises but also some concerns.

The latter being mainly that patients are really happy with the status quo and do not want standards to deteriorate. Due to the (natural) changeover, there is some concern about having confidence in the new doctors, but this is only to be expected.

There are also comments from some patients who make follow up visits that they do not necessarily see the same doctor who they originally consulted and this is a concern to some. There is also concern that due to the doctors who provide consultation (at the time of the survey) that there may not be enough doctors in regular attendance and therefore the ability to get “same day” appointments will suffer.

With the current move towards improving the ability to issue repeat prescriptions, one of the untapped facilities available to patients with internet access is to sign up for Vision Online and book repeat prescriptions and indeed doctor appointments, using this technology. There were a few comments that Vision Online has limitations and so is not used perhaps as often as it could be.

ACTIONS:

Appointment Availability

To maintain the same excellent service levels in all aspects and sustain good appointment availability. This may or may not require extra medical staff, depending upon demand.

Continuity of Care (Seeing the same GP on follow up appointments)

Try to ensure that the same patient sees the same doctor, for at least the duration of the ailment being treated.

Maintain level of Excellent Service

To make and perhaps assist patients in the use of Vision Online, promoting it as an alternative to calling the surgery by telephone or in fact having to visit to submit a repeat prescription.

Provide feedback to the developers and host site that runs Vision Online to suggest improvements that would help promote its use.

Recommendations for possible areas of improvement

In summary, and in reviewing not only the results of the Friends and Family survey but previous reports provided by the Patient Participation Group, it is clear that Simmondley Medical Practice provides and has provided an excellent service to its patients for a long time. So much so that the only main concern is that “changes”, mainly to do with medical staff, has caused some concern. Whether this is unfounded may need time to tell. The main recommendation for what is needed, in the words of one of the survey comments, is “More of the Same”. So we must all keep our eye on the ball and not allow changes to deteriorate what has become such a reputable and excellent Practice. We need to embrace change, drive on and succeed, as has always been the case in previous years.

APPENDIX

Progress on previous years

It should also be noted in this report that following the patient survey last year, the below improvements have been implemented to satisfy the actions made in that report;

Actions Requested:

Acquire a wheelchair for use within the building

Consider improvements to the out of hours service and make the CCG

aware of the current dissatisfaction with the service.

Work with the PPG to improve patient’s knowledge of the services available and way of accessing them through revision of the surgery booklet, surgery website and video loop.

Actions Taken:

Wheel Chair provided by the practice for use of patients within the surgery.

Extended Surgery hours have been implemented during the working day. Additional GP hours added over predominately busy times. e.g. over Christmas and into the New Year, proposals also to cover additional GP hours over Easter Bank holidays in place. Reported to CCG about the dissatisfaction with the out of hours service.

Web site and Video loop in the waiting room continually updated to show the likes of Additional Clinics, Flu Clinics, and Changes of GP’s. Surgery Booklet updated. Education of patients about the Minor Ailments clinics run by participating Pharmacists, through advertisement at the practice and at the local school.

Patient Survey 2013/14

Introduction and Summary

Simmondley Medical Practice has had an established Patients Representation Group (PRG) since 2004 to help ensure that patients are involved in decisions about the range and quality of services provided. A central part of this involves the Practice listening to the views and experiences– both good and bad – of people who use the service. We & the practice also believe we should be helping worthwhile projects & voluntary groups within our community. This year at Christmas we raised £250.00 for Glossop Community Transport who give much appreciated help for many local people.

Our PRG consists of 18 face to face members, in addition to practice representatives. Some previous members have retired from the group & others have joined. The ratio of male to female is 5 – 13 & ages range from 29 – 75. We have tried unsuccessfully tried to recruit younger members by personal invitation, via the practice leaflet & repeat prescription slips. A large proportion of our younger patients are studying &/or working & say they are unable to find time to become involved with the PRG. We have also not had any response from our small ethnic minority.

To gather patients’ views the PRG conducted a survey of patients attending the surgery although it was recognised that those who don’t use the surgery may have different views. To address these hard-to-reach patients, surveys were given to patients attending specially arranged clinics for learning disability reviews, epilepsy reviews & anti-coagulation checks. Many of these are wheelchair bound &/or have carers who were able to assist with completion of the survey. To increase the number of responses from younger patients 16 questionnaires were posted out with stamped-addressed envelopes enclosed. Only one was returned.

A sample poll in November, indicated that patients saw Clinical Care, Getting an Appointment, and Opening Times as the most important aspects of their doctor’s practice. These three areas were surveyed in January 2014: 112 questionnaires were returned, summarised on pages 3 and 4.

It is clear that those who completed the survey were very satisfied with the Practice, with no major issues being apparent and few areas for improvement being noted.

The PRG discussed the general and specific observations from the survey with Dr Tatineni & an action plan was agreed. It was borne in mind when making this plan that room is available at the Glossop Primary Care Centre for an extended hours & out-of-hours facility for the Glossop locality if funding can be made available.

Simmondley Medical Practice Action Plan.

The practice would:

Acquire a wheelchair for use within the building;

Consider improvements to the out of hours service and make the Clinical Commissioning Group aware of the current dissatisfaction with the service;

Work with the PRG to improve patients’ knowledge of the services available and ways of accessing them, through revision of the surgery booklet, surgery website & video loop.

It should be noted that the practice has already incurred a lot of expenditure to ensureCare Quality Commission ( CQC) compliance. Carpets have been removed & polyflooring fitted in all clinical rooms & the waiting room. Fabric chair coverings in clinical rooms have been replaced by wipeable covers & elbow taps fitted where necessary.

Overall Satisfaction Levels

The Practice is to be congratulated on the very high levels of patient satisfaction: all 112 replies expressed overall satisfaction with the care and services provided by the Practice.

Clinical Care

Patients were asked whether they knew about each of the services available for their age group, whether they have used them in the last 12 months, and whether they are likely to use them in the future. No conclusions are drawn from the replies.

For each of the clinical services patients were asked if they were “Happy”, “Not Happy”, or “Neither”. Not every patient graded each service but of the 273 service gradings received 185 were “Happy.” 6 were “Not Happy” (5 were from the same patient who did not know about the services concerned and left no comment; it is possible they did not understand the form). The only other “Not Happy” related to Travel Immunisations but no comment was added.

These replies suggest that the clinical services are meeting patients’ expectations.

Appointments and Opening Times

Patients are happy with their ability to contact the Practice by telephone, with 105 of 107 replies saying the phone was answered promptly. Of the two who did not get answered promptly, one commented that this happened before 9:00 a.m.

For 86 of the 89 replies appointments were arranged for to see a doctor in less than a day, with the other 4 patients having an appointment of their choice within 2 days.

Nurse appointments took longer: half of the 74 replies had appointments in under 2 days; 24 saying up to a week; and 3 saying more than a week and less than 2 weeks. One comment asked for more nurse appointments; other than this there were no negative comments in this area. Given the need and nature of appointments with a nurse, there is no reason to think there was dissatisfaction with these times: a large number of replies included positive comments in relation to appointment times.

Patients were less happy with the Out of Hours Doctor service; only 15 of the 31 replies said they were “Happy,” with 5 patients saying they were “Not Happy”. Moreover, 5 negative comments related to that service compared to 2 across all clinical service areas. Although Practice staff do not provide the Out of Hours service there seems to be a need for the Practice to examine this area and take the matter up with the service provider, if appropriate.

Written Comments:

In addition to “Yes/No” type answers patients had the opportunity to add comments in each section of the questionnaire. All comments received are reproduced below.

Positive comments relating to the Practice:

"Very Happy Always" "Always had a very good service at this GP surgery and staff very approachable flexible; good service to see GP promptly""Can't fault. Staff always very accommodating and try to make appointments especially when urgent as quickly as possible.""very happy” (with appointments service)"Quite happy, uses the clinic also on George Street""The staff and doctors are very helpful at all times. Bring back Dr Bhatt""very good and helpful” (re Counselling service)“very efficient appointments system""Very happy with all the services""very happy with services offered, always able to get an appt. within a day or so, which I find acceptable"(re overall level of satisfaction) ” Very much so; Services & Facilities are very fit for purpose; everything fine with getting an appointment"

Negative comments relating to the Practice:

Counselling service: "Used once, not helpful" (but said they were “Neither Happy nor Not Happy” with the service)

“Why have I never visited any of the Coronary heart clinics or cardiovascular clinics. When I suffer badly with heart problems and have had two major MI's in the past.”

18 comments asked for extended opening times: (some asked for more than one category)

Saturday/weekend opening:

17

Late surgeries on one or more evenings:

7

Bank Holiday opening:

1

Comments relating to the Out of Hours service:

(implied request for) "access to doctor after hours""after hours clinics waste of time""To Doc Waste of Money! Switch are dialling an ambulance before they have finished calls for elderley Patients Wasting money and resources.""extremely dissatisfied with out of hours service” (gist of a long and detailed comment)

Comments related to "services or facilities you would like to be available"

“More Nurse Appointments”“there is a need for a TI diabetes support group for children and teenagers”“surgery needs a wheel chair”“X ray machine would be appreciated in Glossop”“drinks machine available for patients”“health checks for over 75s e.g. mamograms. Blood tests. I am concerned that after 74 it doesn't matter. There must be a good reason for this but it makes you feel useless.”“Podiaty - no longer available at George Street”“Appointment with the same Doctor” “Phone is easier” (for making an appointment than using the internet)

CLICK HERE to download the local participation report for this survey.

We would like to remind patients that the practice is open from 8.00am – 6.30pm every weekday except Wednesday when it closes at 5.30pm. Phone calls are transferred to Go-To-Doc our out of hours provider from 1pm on Wednesdays & 6pm every other week day.

We also provide an online service for ordering repeat prescriptions & booking GP appointments. Please call in at the surgery for a registration form to access these services.

Patient Survey 2012/13

SIMMONDLEY MEDICAL PRACTICE ANNUAL REPORT & AUDIT

We bid a sad farewell on 31st December to Dr Bhatt, who retired from the practice after 30 years of dedicated service to his patients. It is a well-deserved retirement but he will be greatly missed by both staff & patients.

The practice would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the PRG - Patient Reference Group- for planning & organising a very successful retirement party for Dr Bhatt at Glossop Cricket Club. Thank-you also to all our patients who attended. A great time was had by all.

Our PRG has gone from strength to strength this year & now has 19 members. It meets every 2 months & is happy to welcome new members. If you would like to join & help to shape our future plans, please leave your name & contact details at the surgery & these will be passed to the PRG secretary.

Great change lies ahead for primary care with the abolition of Primary Care Trusts & the introduction of Clinical Commissioning Boards so your views are important.

Last year we surveyed approximately 200 of our patients to find out what aspects of our Practice could be improved. Our Patient Representative Group (PRG) collated the responses and decided on the top three priorities. The practice was asked to:

Improve the décor of the waiting room and de clutter the walls

Improve confidentiality at reception

Address the problem of delays when clinicians were running behind with their appointments.

These are the results of the follow up survey carried out in February 2013 to ascertain whether or not improvements have been made. These were collated by the PRG, who wrote the following report

Survey Results

Out of 110 patients 103 said that they had noticed a change in décor. 93.6%

Out of 110 patients 104 have noted a change in confidentiality at reception. 94.5%

Out of 110 patients 103 have noted a display of notice, or verbal communication if the clinicians are running late. 93.6%

Out of the 110 patients who filled in the questionnaire 36 people added comments.

Positive comments 28

Negative comments 7

Indifferent comments 1

Summary of Comments

Decor

Positive comments about the décor 8

Negative comments about the décor, to summarise (Don’t like the colour scheme) 3

Happy with décor as it was 1

Confidentiality

Positive comments 0

Negative comments, to summarise. (Reception should be made more private) 3

Indifferent comments 0

Clinicians Delay

Positive comments, to summarise. (Had not experienced delays in appointments or had been informed) 3

Negative comments 1

Indifferent comments 0

Some patients added comments that they were new to the practice or did not call in often enough to comment on the decor or have experience in delays of the clinicians.

General Comments

18 patents felt it necessary to comment on the friendliness, professionalism and wonderfulness of the staff at the Medical Practice.

To quote a few:

‘10/10 All very nice’

‘Excellent service’

‘I am very happy with the service provided, especially when booking appointments I have always been able to get in very quickly, and staff are always friendly, professional and helpful.’

‘Over the years we have received wonderful service from this practice.’

We will continue to listen to suggestions for improvement & as a practice we appreciate your support & comments.

We still have an issue with inappropriate parking at the beginning & end of the school day. The car park has on occasions been full & this is particularly distressing for our disabled &/or wheelchair patients. Unless you are coming inside the surgery could we ask that you do not park on the surgery car park. We would appreciate your help with this.

Patient Survey 2011/12

We have always valued the opinions of our patients & in 2011/12 we surveyed approximately 170 patients to ask them just 4 simple questions:

• What is the best thing about coming to our practice?

• What don’t you like about coming to see us or what do you think would make our practice better?

• What has impressed you most about other local health services?

• Apart from our practice, what other local health services could be better?

We felt that these open-ended questions gave patients the opportunity to comment on any subject they wished, which was relevant to the practice or other local health services.

Approximately 100 surveys were given out at random to patients in the waiting room but we also wanted to give ‘hard to reach’ patients the opportunity to comment. To achieve this, we sent 70 surveys to teenagers, the housebound, patients with longstanding mental or physical health problems, those who frequently miss their appointments & patients in the past have voiced their dissatisfaction with any aspect of our services.

There was a tear-off slip at the bottom of the survey inviting patients to leave their name & contact number, if they wished to join our PPG. An invitation was also incorporated into patients’ repeat medication slips & the clinicians also verbally invited patients.

104 completed surveys were returned. The number of patients now involved with the PPG is approximately 18 so the recruitment campaign was a great success & these members were happy to take on the role of our patient reference group (PRG).

At an extra-ordinary meeting on December 2nd the PRG met to collate the survey results & present them to the practice. 67 people surveyed were completely happy with the surgery & did not have any suggestions for improvement. Parking, privacy & confidentiality at reception, delays with appointments & the décor of the waiting room were the most common suggestions for improvement.

It was felt that little could be done to rectify the parking problem. In addition to the existing notices, members of staff have attached written ‘do not park’ requests to the windscreens of cars deemed to be inappropriately parked & the local school have also asked parents not to park here when picking children up from school but the problem persists. The practice agreed to write to regular offenders & members of the PRG offered to speak to inappropriate ‘parkers’.

The top 3 areas for improvement were therefore:

• Privacy & confidentiality at reception.

• Delays with appointments.

• Waiting room décor.

The PRG & the practice after a lot of discussion at further meetings agreed the following action plan:

Privacy & confidentiality at reception. Many patients have in the past indicated that they would not like to see a glass partition separating the waiting area from the staff so it was agreed that this was not an option. There is already a notice on the wall informing patients that they can request to be taken to a private area if they wish to discuss something confidential. A larger brightly- coloured poster will be made. A notice on a stand will also be put in the waiting area close to reception asking patients to respect the privacy of others & stand back from reception until a member of staff is available. From a practice point of view, staff will be told not to make any outgoing calls from the front desk & not to mention patients’ names when dealing with incoming calls.

Delays with appointments. These arose for several reasons. Clinics & surgeries did not always start on time, extra patients were added without informing clinicians & patients came with multiple problems or requested further tests so inadequate appointment time had been allocated. It was decided , if necessary ,to begin sessions later to give staff start-up time. Reception staff are to be more vigilant in informing clinicians of extra patients & to check that they have allocated patients sufficient appointment time. Clinicians should also be more assertive & ask patients to make further appointments for multiple problems, tests etc , in order to avoid delays.

Waiting room décor. It was agreed that this needs smartening up. There are too many notices on the boards & walls & repainting is necessary. PRG members offered to come in & strip the walls of all notices. The waiting room will then be repainted & more notice boards bought. The PRG suggested that notice boards should be themed & changed regularly & they would like a notice board of their own. Information on first aid, healthy eating, self-help groups & disease management could be kept in files &stored in a bookcase in the waiting room so that patients had easy access to information.

Locality- wise, better use of the new NHS building on George St; waiting times for clinic & hospital appointments, issues with Tameside hospital & hospital parking in general featured as problems & these will be brought to Commissioning meetings as appropriate.

Specialist services for the elderly, the care of cancer patients & the district nursing service were all mentioned in the survey results as excellent.

A further survey will be undertaken next year by the practice to check whether the practice has addressed its problem areas. Privacy & confidentiality at reception & delays in appointments have already been addressed. Notices have been removed from the surgery walls & we are awaiting repainting.